Google hangouts which came out recently, does the same things that messenger does with its video calling functionality and chatting features, will be the replacement for Google Messenger according to a blog post from Google software engineer Virgil Dobjanschi.

Messenger will be shut down on Wednesday for Android based devices. A Google spokeswoman declined to comment though on when the feature will be removed from iOS devices.

Users should not despair about losing all of their messages and conversations however, because you will be able to download them from Google’s data takeout export service later on Wednesday.

Google is trying to make the transition to Hangouts as painless as possible for users but there is still no guarantee that they will stay since the marketplace is already being dominated by products such as Facebook Messenger and also Whatsapp which both have a large amount of penetration.

Google has been making an effort to try distinguish its service from others though by adding many new features during this year’s I/O conference for developers. It remains to be seen however if people will jump on the Google Hangouts bandwagon.

What do you think of Google shutting down its Messenger service and moving users over to Google Hangouts? Do you think its a good idea. Please leave us a comment below.